Transition Handbook and Training Package

Transition Handbook and Training Package published

The Transition Handbook and the Training Package are 2 of the key tools produced by the RAMSES Project to support cities in their adaptation work.

The Transition Handbook embeds the most important findings from the project in a process management cycle, using the Urban Adaptation Support Tool developed by the European Environment Agency, and synthetises the project results in a practical step-by-step fashion, presenting resources that cities can use to strengthen their knowledge of climate adaptation planning.

The Training Package complements the Transition Handbook by taking stock of existing toolkits to support adaptation management in cities and proposes worksheets and exercises that cities can use to progress on their adaptation endeavours. The worksheets complement the information contained in the Transition Handbook and offer cities a clear path towards becoming more climate adaptive.

RAMSES Bits: The latest news from RAMSES researchers

Highlights from Deliverable 3.3

The report D3.3: “Extension of detailed systems-based risk analysis” uses network analysis to assess the disruption caused by flooding in London to the labour force resulting from the reduction in performance of transport infrastructure, and thus the reduction in productive hours in business sectors supplied by that labour. The report finds that for a 1-in-200 years rainfall event, costs of disruption in terms of loss of production could amount to £165m without adaptation. Further analysis of a range of climate change scenarios and adaptation options will be reported in RAMSES D3.4.

Highlights from Deliverable 4.3

At the mesoscale, an increase from approximately 20-30% to 60% vegetation cover in the city lowers the temperatures by around 0.6°C in Antwerp. Therefore, greening the city does have an impact on the UHI, but only to a limited extent, unless the urban roughness length is also reduced. More details can be found in the report “Urban adaptation effects on urban climate”.

Highlights from Deliverable 5.2

The structure of the city’s economy greatly influences the magnitude of losses due to heat effects. Averted losses through adaptation measures range from -€314 million to over €23 billion. More details can be found in the report Economic costs of climate change in European cities.

Audio-visual guidance tool

A resilient city is not only made up of bricks and mortar, but of flexible systems of elements working together. This complexity has been creatively visualised online in an interactive map of short video clips.

As part of RAMSES, a European-funded research project on climate impacts and adaptation strategies for cities, Climate Media Factory has condensed scientific research into a compilation of over 100 short interview sequences from 33 climate change adaptation and resilience experts. Users can define their own way of navigating the “On Urban Resilience” platform by auto-playing videos, searching by keyword or branching off into a topic-specific strand of clips to learn more in greater detail.

“On Urban Resilience” is designed to help cities to find information on climate change impacts and to explore their options for adapting to climate change and for building city resilience. Contributions by experts on adaptation and resilience from across Europe cover topics such as social adaptation, local climate change models, political commitments and how to start an adaptation strategy in cities. Frans Berkhout, King’s College London, said, “Cities are the main place where climate risks are going to be played out: not only in cities with large poor populations in the global south, but also very wealthy cities in the global north: New York and Sandy is a perfect example of that.”

Scientific reports

Political / Institutional Assessment

Transition model

December 2016

The aim of this deliverable is to present the transition model developed in Task 8.2 which will support cities in the selection of the best alternative of transition to climate change adaptation at short and long term. This model will provide pathway alternatives guiding the cities translation into future resilient cities..

Factors of Transition and their Dynamics

March 2016

The aim of this deliverable is to present the identified factors which influence transition dynamics. These factors are related to availability of financial and other resources, legal and regulatory frameworks, cross-scale socio-economic interactions (due to, for example, institutional architecture, investments of private companies, provision of basic services, etc.), technology availability, cultural and consumption behaviour patterns, among others.

Identification of drivers of urban growth in the political and institutional context

September 2016

This deliverable analyzes the dynamics and the content of the adaptation efforts to climate change in selected cities. With special focus on two main hazards (floods and heat risks), this research sheds light on relevant conditions that facilitated the start and evolution of political and institutional changes culminating in more robust climate-resilient actions at the local level. This paper builds on the case-study of New York City, supplemented by insights from London and Antwerp. It also opens a discussion on the inclusion of cultural factors in the process of resilience building, so far little explored in the adaptation literature. It argues that adaptation cannot succeed without people empowerment and the consideration of social, institutional and political settings, as well as the nature of urbanization trends.

"Typology of the tools available to policy-makers and assessment of their efficiency"

December 2015

This research explores urban adaptation by analysing three main approaches that can assist local leaders to implement adaptation measures to climate change: grey, green and soft measures. The study places special emphasis on the need of a package of measures to be implemented holistically with significant attention to “soft” options, mainly social empowerment and participatory tools of multiple stakeholders, as successful enablers of an effective adaptation plan.

Adaptation Cost Curves

Methods inventory for infrastructure assessment

Chapter 4: Cost inventories for 9 infrastructure components

April 2016

This report presents benchmarks, inventories and quantitative measures to assess infrastructure components, efficiencies and strategies that support the implementation of adaptation and mitigation efforts at the urban level.

"Economic costs of heat and flooding in cities: Cost and economic data for the European Clearinghouse databases"

November 2015

This report presents a new transferable methodology for estimating economy-wide production losses from climate change impacts such as heatwaves and flooding, together with averted losses from adaptation measures. Results for RAMSES core case study cities (London, Antwerp and Bilbao) are presented as cost data for the RAMSES common platform.

Assessment tool to estimate the economic costs of health impacts of climate change at the local level

November 2015

This report accompanies a prototype tool that can be used to estimate the economic costs of health impacts of climate change using data for health economic analysis and adaptation activity costs at the local level in the RAMSES cities within the WHO European Region.

"Review on economic assessment of damage or adaptation costs of health effects of climate change"

January 2015

This deliverable is based on a literature review of the health economics of climate change in Europe. It specifically reviews studies on the economic evaluation of health damage attributable to climate change impacts, as well as the benefits of adaptation and mitigation.

Impact / Adaptation / Efficiency Assessment

Analysis of indirect impacts, and benefits of adaptation, to the economy and business supply chains

March 2017

This report examines the indirect impacts of climate events on the urban economy by analysing flooding disruption in London. The disruption of commuting journeys by flooding is simulated, and secondary effects through supply chain disruption assessed using input-output tables. Adaptation options, to reduce such disruptions, are discussed.

Extension of detailed systems-based risk analysis

April 2016

This report outlines the methodologies adopted for the extension of detailed city-scale climate risk assessment to include new hazards, in the form of pluvial flooding and air quality, and new vulnerability assessments through disruption to businesses.

Methods inventory for infrastructure assessment

April 2016

This report presents benchmarks, inventories and quantitative measures to assess infrastructure components, efficiencies and strategies that support the implementation of adaptation and mitigation efforts at the urban level.

Library of adaptation cost and transition functions

February 2016

The term transition function describes an estimated function providing the likelihood of a transition depending on influencing factor(s). One can distinguish abrupt or gradual and favourable or unfavourable transitions. This report tackles 3 dimensions of transitions in the context of cities in the climate change complex. The interdisciplinary library consists of an economics (Part I), geography (Part II), and physics (Part III) perspective. Parts I and II treat favourable transitions and Part III is about unfavourable ones.

Urban adaptation effects on urban climate

January 2016

This report contains the results of the advanced numerical models and on-site measurements on the impacts of adaptation on urban climate through meso and microscale analyses conducted by RAMSES researchers on the case study cities of Antwerp, Paris and Delhi at the mesoscale, and Antwerp and Bilbao at the micro-scale. The outcomes are design and policy guidelines for new and consolidated urban areas.

High level quantified assessment of key vulnerabilities and priority risks for urban areas in the EU

This report describes a high level climate risk analysis methodology for urban areas. The approach takes advantage of increased availability of European and global dataset and computing power to apply the method to 571 cities in the EU’s Urban Audit database.

This report addresses the state of the art in RAMSES case-study cities. The results contribute to a taxonomy of indicators and design guidelines for resilient architecture, infrastructure and urban environments that can be implemented by public authorities at the building, neighbourhood and catchment scales of the city. A first part of the report examines also the interplay of blue, green and grey infrastructures and soft adaptation measures, based on third party research, and highlights the necessity of a multi-scale approach to resilient infrastructure within and between sectors.

Adaptation measures and corresponding indicators for resilient architecture and infrastructure

May 2015

This report contains a taxonomy of adaptation measures and corresponding indicators for resilient architecture and infrastructure that can be implemented by public authorities at the building, neighbourhood and catchment scales of the city. The taxonomy was developed in cooperation between RAMSES researchers and city representatives.

This report provides an overview of the most relevant indicators in architecture and infrastructure currently used in climate change research and defined needs related to the urban built environment in terms of adaptation challenges.

Training materials

1st RAMSES Stakeholder Dialogue

The 1st RAMSES Stakeholder Dialogue gave participants the opportunity to share insights and discuss their experience with key adaptation experts and stakeholders and with cities that are engaged in adaptation. Experts from Seneca, The Norwegian University of Science and Technology and TECNALIA shared their valuable expertise on crucial adaptation issues, such as embedding architecture and infrastructure indicators into adaptation planning, developing cost-assessments for adaptation and creating a vision for urban transitions towards resilience. The workshop was moderated by ICLEI

During this one-day event, participants had the chance to learn more on cutting-edge adaptation research and will brainstorm with peers and experts on how to advance urban adaptation in Europe.

2nd RAMSES Stakeholder Dialogue

The SD offered a unique opportunity to cities and urban adaptation experts and practitioners to learn about interim results of the RAMSES project, voice their experiences and give feedback to further advance and tailor the RAMSES Research. Three main crucial topics to fostering adaptation and resilience development have been at the core of the event:

Tools and resources to inform decision-making on adaptation were presented by the University of Versailles and discussed to evaluate their scope and effectiveness;

Tecnalia described and co-created with participants specific indicators to describe and evaluate transition factors that allow cities to move to a resilient and adapted future scenario;

Addressing the impacts of climate change on public health was presented by the World Health Organisation (WHO).

The input provided by RAMSES world-class experts have been discussed with stakeholders through interactive exercises. This helped in providing a reality check to the research and inform practitioners’ work on adaptation.

1st RAMSES Webinar

This is a recording of the RAMSES webinar which took place on the 11 November 2013. The webinar recording starts with a presentation by Dr. Anne Holsten (PIK) on the importance of adaptation in cities and an explanation on how the RAMSES Project will support local governments in doing so. Presentations by Dr. Annemie Wyckmans (NTNU), Efrén Feliu (Tecnalia) and Dr. Graham Floater (Seneca/LSE) on resilient architecture and infrastructure, transition pathways towards resilience and adaptation costs were delivered during the webinar.

2nd RAMSES Webinar

This is a recording of the RAMSES webinar which took place on the 4 November 2015.

The work leading to these results has received funding from the European Community's Seventh Framework Programme
under Grant Agreement No. 308497
Project RAMSES - Reconciling Adaptation, Mitigation and Sustainable Development for Cities.